Tag Archives: surfpocalypse

Nothing, I repeat, nothing has been confirmed yet. This is still all speculation, but writing for a blog allows me to speculate.

I just exchanged a few emails with Charle over at Duke Falcons. He told me that a Newsday reporter called for some quotes on Quiksilver Pro coming back to Long Beach. This is for an article they’ll be running shortly.

So after talking it over with fellow SBC writer Shaun, we concluded that it still could be nothing, but speculation. Perhaps Newsday is playing catchup to the New York Post article that ran yesterday. I emailed Charlie this theory and this is what he wrote back:

I thought the same thing too. … So I specifically asked the reporter (who is the same one who I dealt with on all the other Quiksilver articles over the Summer) If she could 100% confirm that LB was a go. She assured me that she confirmed it with her QS contacts. Since she was assigned to the “QS beat” from the start, I trust that she’s in the know.

So there you go. Again, this is all still pure speculation. We are waiting for Quiksilver themselves to confirm. Right now Quiksilver Pro New York is still listed on the schedule with no mention of where in New York.

Oh that’s right. QPNY is on the schedule, and locked in for the same window. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are coming to Long Beach. They could of course go to the Rockaways (yeah, I doubt that) or just continue to use “Quiksilver Pro New York” as a place holder until the final decision is made.

With all the election shakeups and continued fallout from the huge success that was the QPNY2011, this would be quite an exciting development for Long Beach and East Coast surfing as a whole. Will Quiksilver double down on Long Beach and pray for a repeat of Katia? It sure looks like it.

We all know what happened with the Quiksilver Pro festivals being cancelled, but I’m sure some of you are at least bit curious to know who these special surprise guests were supposed to be. Everybody heard the Red Hot Chili Peppers rumor and the comedy team of our readers chimed in with some of their own: The Rolling Stones, Carlos Santana, Paul McCartney with a Billy Joel duet, Jay Z, Kanye West, a Wham reunion! I heard that Roger Waters & David Gilmour were going to reunite Pink Floyd and perform the Wall during Hurricane Irene. Instead of a cardboard wall, a storm wall was going to be built to combat Irene’s swells. Ok, bad joke.

Quiksilver does it again. The Quiksilver Pro is the gift that keeps giving. They’ve just released what they are calling their “Epic Edit.” It is so full of awesome I can barely contain myself. Enjoy. Also make sure you take the survey.

Kelly Slater just tweeted our link. Thanks Kelly, you rock, and good job at Trestles yesterday.

In an impressive move to start a transparent planning process for the Quiksilver Pro 2012 , the City has posted a resident survey online.

I strongly recommend every take a few minutes to answer the four question survey which can be found here. Please share this link with friends and family and have your opinion heard.

Very interestingly, the City, for the first time has acknowledged that they received “hundreds of thousands” of dollars from Quiksilver. They’ve also begun to discuss the money generated by sales tax revenue, and are arguing that the sales tax revenue will be used to “keep property tax down.”

Following the many months of planning that the City undertook to host this event, we were disappointed that we were unable to present the festival portion due to damage caused by Hurricane Irene.

I must say that I strongly disagree with the above statement. I’ve heard time and time again from many different people that Irene was a convenient excuse to end the festival that some members of the City government had been working on pulling the plug on for weeks preceding the storm.

In the survey, I answered the open-ended Question 4 about suggestions this way:

The number one thing that the City must do is related to parking, or how to handle crowds, or what sort of music to have. It is about transparency. You must be transparent in this entire process. You must allow the residents to participate in this dialogue. The residents want this event and are willing to compromise quite a bit to make it happen, they just need to be part of the process.

Here’s the rest of the press release. Anything else jump out?

Quiksilver Pro Resident Survey

Dear Neighbors,

The Quiksilver Pro New York surfers have packed their boards and are headed for their next tournament site. The international surf competition was a new and exciting experience for Long Beach, and as a City, we were proud to have hosted the event.

We want to thank our residents for their hospitality towards the organizers, athletes and guests of our City. We have received very positive feedback after experiencing what one Quiksilver spokesperson called an event “that will go down in history.”

There is no doubt this event was a huge success. The beach at National Boulevard was filled with thousands of residents and guests as they were treated to the top surfers in the world, competing on some of the best waves the East Coast has seen. On the sand, children were the stars, as the family friendly Roxy House provided activities for young girls. The Quiksilver Pro merchandising tent provided a unique shopping experience and a head start on everyone’s fall wardrobe and holiday gift list.

Following the many months of planning that the City undertook to host this event, we were disappointed that we were unable to present the festival portion due to damage caused by Hurricane Irene. The safety of our residents was our first concern, and we had to make a difficult decision. Still, in spite of the storm and evacuation, and with the ardent hard work of city employees, we did a swift cleanup and were able to keep the heart of this world class competition intact.

Our City received hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for the event. This includes compensation for all municipal services provided to help make it a success, such as police, fire, sanitation, beach maintenance and other City personnel. We will also collect our share of sales tax from increased business traffic that the event generated. In addition, restaurants, shops, the Hotel and other businesses around the City benefited. This is a gain for all residents as increased sales tax revenue keeps City property taxes down.

The surf competition brought unprecedented enthusiasm and excitement to Long Beach by putting a positive light on our City worldwide through all of the favorable media coverage.

We would like to make this event even more successful should the Quiksilver Pro return, and we want to assess the possibility of future similar events. To that end, we are interested in knowing how you, our residents, think we might make an event like this even better next time.

If you are interested in participating in a brief survey, kindly answer the questions here.

We thank you, in advance, for your participation in our survey, and we look forward to your comments!

SAY WHAT? Of course, Quiksilver Pro New York 2012 could be anywhere: The Rockaways, Jones Beach, Montauk. Shaun already explained to us the three year deal, so Long Beach isn’t a guarantee. But we all know it’s the best place for it, right?

Check out the website. Oh and you need to live in France, UK or Spain to enter.

I found this photo over at the Quiksilver Pro website. What an unbelievable view of Long Beach, the crowd, and – oh yea – two nut jobs jumping out of a helicopter with GoPro parachutes.

So with some digging (alright it wasn’t hard at all) I’ve found out these guys are part of the GoPro Bomb Squad and put up some awesome shots of their jump. Neil Amonson and Marshall Miller are both pro skydivers and have similar photos from tons of events online, and further demonstrate that their landing area was well picked to avoid landing feet first on an unsuspecting child.

Also, they were both charged with Reckless Endangerment in the 2nd degree.

(Photo credit: GoPro Bomb Squard)

And because so many have requested it, I’ve taken a quick screen grab of the police blotter. The LBPD is funny this way. They have one of the most antiquated websites around, but post much of their blotter to twitter and facebook.

Any conversation about the Quiksilver Pro – beyond discussing the great waves, fun, and parking headache – inevitably brings up the supposed “contract” that exists between the City of Long Beach and Quiksilver. I myself have discussed the subject before.

I’ve often been asked “is the City locked into a three-year contract?” Or other formulations of the same question. Now that I finally have a all the info I can set the record straight once and for all.

The major surf companies (Quiksilver, Hurley, Billabong) vie to be the title sponsor for the ASP’s World Championship Tour (WCT) events (11 scheduled this year). Quiksilver (or any of the title sponsors) contracts with the ASP for the rights to a specific location’s event. Every year, the ASP works to pick the best venues for their so-called “dream tour,” so some years, new locations are added, others are dropped.

Quiksilver landed a three-year contract with the ASP in January of this year to hold an “East Coast” event somewhere during the September window. Quiksilver then approached Long Beach to host the ASP event. The City worked with Quiksilver and Quiksilver received a permit, not a contract, to hold the event, which ran from the 1st to the 15th of September.

To summarize, the only contract that exists is between Quiksilver and the ASP for an “East Coast” event. Quiksilver then worked with Long Beach to receive permitting to hold the event here for this year only. Please help dispel any rumors to the contrary.

What’s Next

Now, with the success of this year’s event, Quiksilver – and many if not most in Long Beach – are excited about bringing the party back next September. What will start soon is the back and forth between Quiksilver and the City over permitting for the 2012 event. The City Manager, Charles Theofan, has promised a more transparent process this year which will work more closely with the residents to make sure everybody’s concerns are dealt with month’s before – not in the days preceding the event.

“Where are those damn coupon books?” asked a local merchant* during our phone conversation this past Thursday. She was referring to the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce-sponsored coupon books in which this merchant bought ad space. These books were to be distributed at the Quiksilver Pro early this September. Sprinkle them all over Long Beach during the Quiksilver Pro and you have thousands of potential customers. It sounded like a win-win to me, but wasn’t, since these books were allegedly nowhere to be found.

Let’s start this from the beginning:

This matter was brought to my attention when I asked Quiksilver to design a long Beach-themed shirt for next year’s event. Mark Tannenbaum, Executive Vice President of the Long Beach Chamber Of Commerce got involved with the discussion by writing: “If you want LB shirts contact the chamber of commerce to get that done.” ALS, a local merchant in Long Beach, balked at that idea:

”Go to the Chamber of Commerce to get that done? Are you kidding? It is actually the Chamber that disappointed me the most in the Quiksilver event. The Chamber went door-to-door promoting a coupon book to businesses that they would be responsible for circulating at the various surf events and at the Allegria…..

Did anyone ever see this booklet? I attended several of the events…never saw a booklet.”

Coupon books? As a writer for this blog, I look for anything I can get my hands on. I was at the Quiksilver Pro almost everyday and I didn’t see any of these so-called coupon books. I contacted ALS on the phone to hear what she had to say:

“They (The Chamber of Commerce) asked us to pay $325.00 for a one-sided ad which was going to be printed in 30,000 books. 5,000 were supposed to be distributed at the (LIRR) train station, while the other 25,000 at the Quicksilver Pro event, but they were nowhere to be found. Where are those damn coupon books?….Nobody knows where they ended up.”

When asked if any customers came to her store with a coupon from the book she said, “No, how could they? Nobody had them.” Adding to the fire, another LB retailer contacted me with this little tidbit:

“25,000 books were delivered to the Chamber….but they refused to receive them and told the deliverer to bring them to the surf site.”

So these books were printed, but somehow got lost between the Chamber of Commerce and the Quiksilver Pro site? Scavenger hunt on National Blvd anybody?

I contacted the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and got to speak with their President Michael J. Kerr. After telling Mr. Kerr about the missing books and merchant frustration, he said, “The Herald won the bid to print the coupon books. 1,000 were to be sent to the Chamber of Commerce, 5,000 to the Long Beach & Jamaica train stations and the remainder were going to the Allegria Hotel to be distributed by Quiksilver, which was under an agreement with them. They were delivered to the hotel…..We had an agreement and we were acting as co-sponsors or like agents. We anticipated a lot more people, but with the festivals being cancelled last minute, we were in a bind.”

Ok, so now it’s the Allegria’s fault?

When told about Mr. Kerr’s remarks, ALS said, “They’re (The Chamber) the ones that solicited us; walking door-to-door to every store here. Why would it be Quiksilver or the Allegria’s responsibility to distribute them?” Well, she does have a point. I know nothing about this distribution agreement, but The Allegria and Quiksilver had enough on their hands that week. Even if such agreement was in place, the Chamber should have followed up on behalf of the merchants and made sure they were distributed properly.

I could call up Quiksilver & The Allegria and continue this game of cat & mouse, but I won’t. I’m just a person that writes for a blog and not an investigative reporter. It’s unfortunate when a merchant such as ALS invests into a program only to get nothing in return. It’s also a shame that the festivals were cancelled and that the amount of people the Chamber of Commerce expected didn’t materialize. Let’s just hope the Quiksilver pro goes as planned next year and the last-minute chaos of this year goes away. But will there one in Long Beach next year?

I asked Mr. Kerr about the general feeling amongst posters on this blog how [Chamber Executive VP] Mark Tennanbaum’s public comments might be scaring Quiksilver away from hosting in Long Beach again. Mr Kerr said, “Mark spoke out of frustration, even at the last City Council Meeting. His best interests are with the merchants. We are all disappointed with the canceling of the festivals. We have no control of the weather [Hurricane Irene] and the city council has their reasons. It is what it is……We are currently in talks with Quicksilver about them coming back and we hope they do.” Well, whether you like them or not, at least the Chamber of Commerce indeed wants the Quiksilver Pro back in Long Beach.

Going back to the coupon books: If anybody knows of their whereabouts or actually received one, please let us know how you got it and where.

————–

*The merchants that I spoke to wanted their identity revealed. It was my decision to keep them anonymous. I support our local merchants and don’t want anything said in this article to jeopardize their businesses. I will attest that they are actual merchants in long Beach.

Long Beach has long been a surf town – whether the New York Times knew this or not – and just because the pros are heading out and Quiksilver City is being deconstructed, doesn’t mean the fun has to end.

It looks like we may have some good surf coming in towards the end of the week, thanks to TS Maria (wow these windy women have been really active this season).

And if waxing up a board isn’t your idea of a good time, The Inn will be premiering an amazing new surf flick Wednesday at 8PM. Globe’s film, titled “Year Zero” features some of the most progressive surfers in the world, like Taj Burrow (who you may remember made it to the semis on Friday, Yadin Nicol, Dion Agius, CJ Hobgood, “Damien Hobgood (both of which did great at the Quiksilver Pro), and Nate Tyler. The Inn will also have all sorts of giveaways from Surfing Magazine, Unsound Surf Shop, Rockstar, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Kicker.

From the makers:

Shot on location around the world and documented entirely in super 16mm film, YEAR ZERO delivers a unique concept with stunning visuals that capture the essence of surfing in a novel setting. A modern take on high performance surfing set in a post-apocalyptic world reminiscent of Mad Max or an HG Wells novel.

Oh and the best part? There will be no cover.

On a related note, last Thursday at The Inn, local film maker Thomas Brookins screened his film, Shadows of the Same Sun, about the roots of surfing in The Rockaways and Long Beach. It’s a great low budget movie with a New York edge to it, and leaves you wanting to go paddle out when it’s over. I strongly recommend checking it out if you can.